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Critical Objects is a personal initiative of Berlin-based graphic design firm, HelloMe. The project began as a series of explorations that thrive on not having any particular goal. The project consists of a series of objects that transcend a blurry line between artistic sculpture and functional furniture. The beauty of the project is that it remains unknown to the user if these things should really every be used, touched, sat on, or turned on… We have a small collection featured here, so be sure to check out the full series at Critical Objects.

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Toshiko Horiuchi MacAdam began her career as a textile artist. While exhibiting a piece titled “Multiple Hammock No. 1″ a couple of children in the gallery asked if they could use it. Surprisingly she allowed the children to play on her sculpture. The amusing incident led to an idea, and her work has since become much larger and fun. Adding color, size, and interactivity, her work soon transformed from sculpture to public art and finally to playground. The playground pictured here is hand knit by MacAdam and located in Tokyo.

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The world of German Illustrator and Designer Mathis Rekowski is flooded with color and shape. Rekowski’s designs somehow seem chaotic but well controlled. He intricately pieces together familiar shapes, patterns, and pop culture references, to create his highly detailed work. Through his work Rekowski has been able to acquire such high profile clients as Volkswagen, Delta, and Mercedes. Further, he’s been able to reach this level of talent and career success as a self-taught artist.

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Eric Johnson is a brilliant carpenter who designs and builds furniture out of completely salvaged materials. Armchairs from boat masts, rocking chairs from milk crates, lamps from moped scraps. A lot of “recycled” product design can end up looking not too different from the garbage it started out as, but Johnson does an incredible job of using clean, shrewd designs to make objects that stand on their own regardless of their history. The combination of his intelligent designs and recycled materials is inspiring in its own right too, quietly encouraging us all to see the potential in the mountains of discarded objects that overwhelm our modern lives. So kudos on three levels, Eric. Keep your eyes on Mr. Johnson, I smell a bright future.

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At first glance the Stone Fields of designer Giuseppe Randazzo seem to be akin to stoic environmental art a la Andy Goldsworthy. Under closer scrutiny, however, these pieces are far from ‘natural’. Randazzo begins with optimal packing algorithms – algorithms that determine the most efficient way to fill a certain amount of space with various sized objects. He then modifies the algorithms to produce different arrangements of stones in the circular field. Further, the stones aren’t ‘natural’ – that is, they’re not real! Rather, the images produced by Randazzo are actually hyper-realistic 3D renderings.

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Annika Frye is a young German designer making objects that are partly useful but mostly experiment. That modern cliché of “everything has been done”, or in this case, made, can be discouraging to some young artists and designers. But not everybody. Some people find in it a freedom– now that the difficult groundwork has been done, it is time to play. Annika is definitely in the latter group. Her designs are mostly about in what ways we can re-create the things we already have but in the wildest, most unconventional, and cheapest ways possible. Everything she does is at an angle– a table, made out of tape; a chair, that’s half blanket; a seat, that unfolds into a bed. Check out more of her designs and her descriptions thereof after the jump!

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Yuri Suzuki is an English artist/designer/inventor who has been making some really remarkable objects. They’re not really “art” in a traditional sense, but they’re not products or inventions that would ever be used by The People, nor are they simple design ideas. What they are, is amazing–phonograph globes, flame organs, theremin radios. Yuri is also a big supporter of the DIY community, so if you’re wondering how to make any of his objects, he has instructions for most of them on his website. Suzuki’s is a very special brain. Check out videos of his objects in action after the jump! ( via )

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Francois Leroy is a freelance illustrator from Paris, France whose digital works incorporate everything necessary to push art forward into generation upgraded. With ease he navigates the difficult territories of 3D typography, design, context, motion graphics, and execution – all while retaining his own identifiable aesthetic. His website not only offers a glimpse into his portfolio, but also several cool free downloads, which deviate from the norm. One is of a 100-layer Photoshop file that you can make a visual remix of and another is a asset-pack of transparent .PNG files you can use to add texture to your work. The crazy thing is that he actually shot the textures himself, which is really cool since you usually don’t get a chance to see the people behind things like that. (via)